Liberty Review - Southern Caribbean 8 Day Cruise

[FireEater]

Just returned today from the 8 day version. Here are my notes:

 

Embark: Arrived a little past 2pm. No lines. $20 a day to park, collected as you drive in. The port staff were great. Breezed thru security. Took a whole 10 minutes from passing thru security to stepping on the ship, 3rd deck atrium area…same as where the guest services and shore excursion desks are and location you depart from on last day.

 

Ship decor: Just OK. The Silver dining room looked cheesy with a lot of inlays that looked cheap. Nothing wowed me about any decor, on any deck, or in any venues…

 

Cabin. We had a disable cabin, 6th floor, forward (6307) (starboard side) balcony room. Fit us a little tight (2 of us). No couch which was a very big let down for us as we tend to hang in the room a lot to read, talk, and just relax. Plenty of room in the bathroom. Had a walk in shower with no lip and a seat. Cabin was a very long way to the aft dining room where we were assigned. The entry door to the room is right next to the door that leads to the forward outside viewing deck. A lot of banging of the 2 doors when people would come and go. The diagram on the deck plan shows the door to be in the hallway, like all the other doors, but it is not. One has to make a turn like they are going out the door to the viewing deck, then make a sharp turn into the cabin. Makes it tough for scooters and wheel chair riders, but doable.

 

We had 2 110 electrical outlets in the room. 1 at the table area in front of the room mirror and 1 in the bathroom. Was not an issue as I did not have a ton of electronics to keep charged…just my wives scooter battery and my e-cig battery. My camera battery was not rechargeable anyways….I saw the room steward at the beginning, but only twice after that. It did not matter. He did his job and our cabin was always maintained properly with ice buckets filled twice daily. He also did towel animals nightly…I always did see one other room steward down from ours all the time. He was either real slow at doing his work, or real tidy and spot on with everything he does in the rooms.

 

The bed was too hard for my wife and I so I asked for an egg crate or something to soften it up a tad. He could only offer another comforter under the bottom sheet, so we took that and it soften it a tad, but still was not to my liking. I did a video of the room in 2 parts, but it is too large to download thru my email it appears, so I will attempt to post it to youtube soon…Look for Carnival Liberty cabin 6307.

 

Two issues with this cabin. 1st was it was so far forward that at nights when the ship was moving quick (3 nights), the waves would bang into the hull. The sound was like a cannon going off. It was bad enough that on 3 nights, we slept bad hearing that cannon shot or had a tough time getting to sleep. 2nd issue was the maintenance crew started work above our balcony 2 days before 8am. Heck of a wake up call to hear steel being banged against the deck above you along with grinding going on so early on vacation.

 

Entertainment. Lacked any good entertainment. They had 2 main shows plus the marriage show. The 1st show was just ok. I even forget what it was, while the 2nd show, to me, had bad singers to the point I left after just 10 minutes due to their singing ability. The daily schedule had items listed, but the majority was money making items for Carnival like art shows, towel making with book sales, spa things, parties. They did have different trivia games like Big Bang Theory, Star Trek, and a few others that were done mostly if not all in the atrium, with the entertainment staff reading the items as thrilled and exciting as watching grass grow….They had a piano bar, but no player. I never saw it listed on the schedule. He might have been on vacation.

 

Internet Use. Slowwwwwwwwwwww. Worst ship for internet use I have been on. To the point where I could not even use my IPAD in the cabin and had to go to the ships computers to get on line. Even then, it was slowwwwwww. I wasted at least 20 minutes of my 45 waiting on the pages to come up, if it ever did. I tried at least 6 different times though out the day and night with the same result. Be warned, cabin internet use forward for me was slowwwwwwwwwww and I lost a lot of minutes just by waiting for anything to appear on the screen.

 

Food. I know it is subjective. My wife and I enjoyed all the meals offered at dinner in the sit down restaurant. Good variety each night. They even offered sit down service on the last day (7-9am) which was good as we were in no rush. We had the Silver dining room, 4th deck. Good service too. They had lobster night on the first formal night with no limits per our waiter.

Guys burger was too greasy for us and it did not sit well for me lets say. We tried it once, and that was it. To me 5 guys burgers are better and we stopped at one on the way home too….LOL

 

The fish and chips restaurant surprised me. It had more then fish and fries. Was a nice surprise and the food was good. We ate there once for lunch. Do not think it was open past lunch either.

 

Food was available just about 24/8. You just needed to look at the schedule on the daily sheet to find the times on which place was open at what time.

 

Ports of Call. We just got off the ship and walked around Aruba and Curacao port area. Curacao had a Starbucks coffee shop we went to. Free WiFi too. I did not have my iPad though. We got some cold coffee and walked around the pier area to see the junket items offered. The 3rd port we stopped at was Grand Turk. I did the power scooter snorkeling. It is where you get into the water from a boat with a motorized machine that will pull you around so you do not have to swim. You can even point it down to get deep to check out coral or fish as long as you can hold your breath. The boat workers had it down to a science.

 

Casino. Crowded at times. 6 card mixing machines at the blackjack table. Learned a little about craps and how to lay down the bets. How much money one wins on where you lay your chips still is not clear though…LOL

 

Departure off Ship. We started at the sit down dining room for breakfast at 8:30ish. I did not hear the call for people to leave until we got seated. When we were done with breakfast around 9:15, we heard zones 1-15 can leave. The lines were a zoo. Took 1 hour from the time I heard we could leave until we got into the car. Customs was a breeze. 2 minutes standing there with the agent looking at passports and asking a few questions, then we were gone. We left Port C from one pier, and returned at another so Carnival had a ton of buses to bus us over to our parking lot. Overall, it worked just fine. The bus line workers loaded the luggage while we walked on the bus. No issues.

 

Cruise Director. The Cruise Director Corry was good and seen all over the ship. He reminds me of Drew Cary when Drew was a tad bigger lets say..

 

Was a nice quiet, relaxing cruise. We are not drinkers so we do not purchase the Cheers package.

 

Overall. Lets just say, we have had better cruises with Carnival. With our next 3 on other lines, maybe we will find a home...maybe not.

 

Any questions?

[d&a Delaware]

FireEater,

 

You said cabin 6307, but did you mean 6207? My husband and I will be in 6207 (an accessible balcony cabin) on Liberty for this same 8 night cruise, except we will visit Bonaire rather than Curacao. I am surprised to learn the cabin entrance is not on the main corridor (as it appears on the deck plan) and that there is no sofa in the cabin. What are the furnishings? Are there upholstered chairs? Loveseat? Is there adequate room to park my mobility scooter (mine is a small TravelScoot)? Is the cabin any larger than a standard cabin for getting around (I won't be using my scooter in the cabin, only my cane). What sort of furniture is on the balcony? From your description of the cabin location, it certainly sounds like the one my husband and I will be in. We are accustomed to accessible cabins on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean which are a bit more spacious than standard cabins in the same category, allowing me to get around more easily. This is our first cruise on Carnival. Were you and your wife able to navigate this cabin on Carnival Freedom easily?

 

Thanks for whatever info you can give me.

 

David

 

PS -- Thanks very much for posting this review.

Edited August 18, 2014 by d&a Delaware

[Swampbaby]

Just returned today from the 8 day version. Here are my notes:

 

Embark: Arrived a little past 2pm. No lines. $20 a day to park, collected as you drive in.

Cabin. Was not an issue as I did not have a ton of electronics to keep charged…just my wives scooter battery and my e-cig battery.

 

Did you bring your wife's scooter with you? If so, and it was carried on back of your vehicle, shouldn't you have not paid for parking at the port?

[ChaplainPagne]

thanks for the review. Did you not get to pick your own cabin? Also, if you have a handicap placard for your car, parking at the port is free...

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[rainbowflag]

Thanks for the report!

[mommom of 7]

thanks for the review. Did you not get to pick your own cabin? Also, if you have a handicap placard for your car, parking at the port is free...

 

That does not hold true in Canaveral. Your car or Van MUST HAVE the lift to put the scooter or wheel chair in & out.

We have the GOGO scooters but not the right lift.

HANDICAP PLACARDS mean nothing. You can park in HC. parking but you still pay

[FireEater]

FireEater,

 

You said cabin 6307, but did you mean 6207? My husband and I will be in 6207 (an accessible balcony cabin) on Liberty for this same 8 night cruise, except we will visit Bonaire rather than Curacao. I am surprised to learn the cabin entrance is not on the main corridor (as it appears on the deck plan) and that there is no sofa in the cabin. What are the furnishings? Are there upholstered chairs? Loveseat? Is there adequate room to park my mobility scooter (mine is a small TravelScoot)? Is the cabin any larger than a standard cabin for getting around (I won't be using my scooter in the cabin, only my cane). What sort of furniture is on the balcony? From your description of the cabin location, it certainly sounds like the one my husband and I will be in. We are accustomed to accessible cabins on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean which are a bit more spacious than standard cabins in the same category, allowing me to get around more easily. This is our first cruise on Carnival. Were you and your wife able to navigate this cabin on Carnival Freedom easily?

 

Thanks for whatever info you can give me.

 

David

 

PS -- Thanks very much for posting this review.

 

I stand corrected, the cabin was indeed 6207. Sorry...:o

 

As to furnishings, the cabin had 1 upholstered arm chair and a upholstered seat without arms that a lady can sit at to put on makeup in front of the mirror. No loveseat. The TV was just to the left of the chair, up about 5 feet and would have hurt the neck if we pulled it out and just looked up to watch TV.

 

Looking at other balcony cabins as I was walking down the halls, I would say that the size of the cabin was the same....The difference I could tell was the size of the bathroom. I think what gives the cabin a larger feeling was the no couch issue, leaving more space to park a scooter.

 

The balcony had 2 chairs and a small knee high metal table. Plenty of room on the balcony. Not large, but works for 2 people.

 

A good place for the scooter (wife uses a 3 wheel go-go) was the outside wall corner, facing the bed to the left. It left plenty of room to put the arm chair out in back of it to watch TV. My wife just sat on the bed to watch TV. We used the lady's chair to put used clothing on it as it would not have been comfortable where it could be placed to sit and watch TV.

 

Not sure if we have been on the Freedom. I forget if that was one of the ships we have been on. :o

 

I forget when my wife started needing the use of a scooter. It has been less then 4 years though.

 

 

thanks for the review. Did you not get to pick your own cabin? Also, if you have a handicap placard for your car, parking at the port is free...

 

No we did not have a choice of cabins. This was a change from our original cruise choice and switched 9 months out...Carnival only offered us this cabin and said "don't worry, it is a good cabin, at a good location" or words to that effect....

 

Yes we have a lift and use it all the time when going to ports. I just mentioned the price for info purposes for the people that have to pay. All Florida ports offer free parking to cars with lifts on them (at least our type of lift which is electric). It is true, just having the placard will not get one free parking....The car must have a lift (not sure of any required type or kind) on it for the free parking.

Edited August 18, 2014 by FireEater

[FireEater]

That does not hold true in Canaveral. Your car or Van MUST HAVE the lift to put the scooter or wheel chair in & out.

We have the GOGO scooters but not the right lift.

HANDICAP PLACARDS mean nothing. You can park in HC. parking but you still pay

 

Our lift lowers and lifts. There is no putting the scooter in or out of the car for us and we get the free parking. We also have the go-go 3 wheel version and have not had a problem at either Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, or Port Canaveral ports.

[pippin65]

Cabins 7363 and 7361 were hot. Cabin 7405 was cold. Btw you can use the wifi on your phone while it is in airplane mode to access the free carnival site. Has deck plans of the ship, that days activities and even small news articles.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Swampbaby]

My carrier does not raise and lower. It has a "ramp" at the back that you manually lower to ground so you can get the scooter off. IF the time comes that I can't put that piece down then I will get the electric lift. As info, I had one years ago but also lived "back in the woods" on dirt roads which caused problems with the mechanism hence the non-electric now.

[Lovefuninthesun]

I thought all balcony rooms had a sofa?

TIA

[erby2283]

I thought all balcony rooms had a sofa?

TIA

 

The L-shaped cabins on decks 6/7 aft don't have soda's either. Just an FYI.

[FireEater]

I thought all balcony rooms had a sofa?

TIA

 

One can not believe everything they read i have found out. The description of my cabin said it had one. Low and behold, it did not....which I can understand due to needing a parking spot for a scooter...but It would have been nice to know the truth before I stepped into the cabin....

 

The main thing for us was the walk in shower anyways, vice a tub.

Edited August 18, 2014 by FireEater